Like others have stated I liked the movie until it became My Super Ex-Girlfriend 2. Actually, it was an OK way to introduce a weakness, I think I just wanted to see more of the Hancock redemption story plus I didn't think their over-the-top fisticuffs and awkward CG truck slamming was necessary or interesting.

I bet two hundred quatloos Hancock will have more business than Superman Returns.

Click to expand...

Sure, it'll do more business that SR--but Hancock isn't even a patch on that film as far as quality is concerned. Hancock's jarring tonal shifts, under-developed characters, and frankly stupid 'twist' are more suited to a direct-to-video project than to a feature film. I think of very few films I go see as a complete waste of my time, but this is one of them.

Let me ask you this: if Hancock starred an unknown rather than the most bankable star in Hollywood at the moment, do you really think the numbers would be the same?

Domestic total right now (estimated) is $107m, $185m worldwide. Opening weekend take is $66m.

Hancock has an estimtd budget of $150m plus half again for marketing.

So, yeah, start preparing for that sequel now.

Click to expand...

Let's see what the drop-off is next weekend. I'll be surprised if the movie has any legs.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it may not have very good legs but it all depends on word-of-mouth.

What comes out this weekend?

Click to expand...

Hellboy 2 The Golden Army, an honest comic book movie, that should open around $40m I'd think. Still if Hancock has good WOM, which is iffy based on what I'm seeing about the 'net, it could best HB2. However, I see a solid 50% drop placing it at about $30m and a second place finish, but ahead of Journey to the Center of the Earth. That movie has little buzz on it as of now. Its 3-D gimmick is about the only thing of uniqueness it has going for it.

Still though this is Will Smiths 8th consecutive $100m movie. Making him the only actor to have that streak. He was tied with Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise at 7 before this. He has 12 $100m movies in all.

I'd say somewhere between Average and Above Average. It was a lot of fun and Will Smith was great as always, but once Charlize Theron became another superhuman the story logic fell apart HARD. The script needed another rewrite to keep the tone more consistent, and to give the "if we're close to each other we'll die" idea something resembling more coherence. They set up the sequel in NYC, so we'll see if such a sequel can make these mostly good ideas better.

For those who are claiming the Second and Third Acts of Hancock are where the movie goes off the rails - what do you think should have been done with the promising First Act?

Click to expand...

The First Act should have become the end of the Second Act and beginning of the third.

While jumping into the middle of the story is usually a good thing to do to avoid exposition (especially in fiction), it's become an overused writing cliche these days. Meeting and learning about Hancock's powers a bit more gradually could have been an excellent Act One.

Seeing him live in the desert for awhile and how he'd be wasting his powers there (and handling trespassers, wild life, etc) could have been an excellent character study prior to his meeting Bateman's character. As it is now, it's almost like a "previously on "Hancock" kind of summary.)

Even a silhouetted flashback of the beating that made him lose his memory (so we can't make out Theron yet) could have been a very exciting and moving sequence. (Especially since we learn the beating was because they were an inter-racial couple back in the 20's south.).

Lots of great possibilities to redo the storyline.

Again, for me, it wasn't the twist in the storyline itself, it was the very poor way in which it was realized and executed (and edited).

--Ted

Click to expand...

I disagree. If you're talking about a typical super hero origin story, you'd be correct. However this isn't as much as super hero story than it is about people finding their way in a super hero setting. If they would have laid all the cards out on the table at the beginning, it wouldn't have been as interesting as it was.

An interesting but not great movie. Very odd structure. The twist happens about ten minutes too soon and the X-Files writers' influence of "less exposition=better product" is definitely there. But in this case weakens the storyline.

Act Three got pretty disjointed for awhile and the whole thing about proximity was very inconsistent. Likewise, the origin explanation was pretty shaky and unsatisfying.

Click to expand...

I quoted this because it pretty much sums up my opinion of the film pretty well.

I bet two hundred quatloos Hancock will have more business than Superman Returns.

Click to expand...

Sure, it'll do more business that SR--but Hancock isn't even a patch on that film as far as quality is concerned. Hancock's jarring tonal shifts, under-developed characters, and frankly stupid 'twist' are more suited to a direct-to-video project than to a feature film.

Click to expand...

As if Singer sucking the cock of Donner wasn't bad enough, but people think S:R is actually a quality film?

Let me ask you this: if Hancock starred an unknown rather than the most bankable star in Hollywood at the moment, do you really think the numbers would be the same?

Click to expand...

No it wouldn't, but the numbers would be far better than S:R, that's for sure. S:R was supposed to blow off everything in its path, instead it was a massive embarrassment for every good fan of Superman.

If you're talking about a typical super hero origin story, you'd be correct. However this isn't as much as super hero story than it is about people finding their way in a super hero setting. If they would have laid all the cards out on the table at the beginning, it wouldn't have been as interesting as it was.

Click to expand...

I'm talking about ANY story. You can do more backstory and still be creative and unpredictable.

And this film especially missed that golden opportunity and, for me, took the lazy way out.

I saw it last night and was very underwhelmed by it. I thought there was a terrible mess, the story tried to go in several opposite directions. Saw it in French so I couldn't tell about the halfway cuts in dialogs...
It started well, though.